Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Devin loves his elders. I've commented on this before. He's not shy when seeing someone he hasn't seen in several months. He just starts looking for the buttons to turn on the shower of love so that he can dance in its comforting downpour.

The first button he looked for with Memaw was an odd choice, I thought.

"I thought you were dead."

Yep. Upon seeing his Memaw and getting to the understanding that she is the other grandma, the one he doesn't see as often, he commented, "I thought you were dead."

Apparently, he thinks this "I thought you were dead" button is very efficient because he's been telling his Memaw ever since she got here just how surprised he is that she isn't dead.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The kids are out of school this week. I had a babysitter for half the week, but it just didn't seem worth it, so I "fired" her (she seemed a little bored, anyway.)

So, the kids have been playing in the basement with each other, not loudly, with no TV, and they aren't asking for snacks. They aren't wearing shirts, but that seems to be the only thing they aren't doing right, and honestly, I don't care if they don't wear shirts. I just want them to wear underwear, and I don't care if they're inside out and/or backwards.

Friday, June 06, 2008

I took the kids to the park tonight. I brought along their water bottles from their school lunchboxes. It's hot outside, and Trevor drained what was left in his bottle pretty quickly. Then, he asked Devin if he could have some of his.

Devin offered to share. But, when he handed the bottle over, Trevor said, "EWWW!" Devin had been finishing off his sandwich, and he left a little bit of it in the cap of the water bottle.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

This parenting racket is a rough business. Keeping all my rules straight, making sure they don't feel entitled to things they don't earn, feeding them healthy foods without teaching them bad eating habits. It's simply fraught with pitfalls and black holes that I must navigate.

I am setting up a kid date with another mom who has 2 kids pretty much the same age as my kids. I asked Trevor what he thought of that. "Ummm, no thanks," he said.

"But, I want to go so I'm going to go ahead and set it up." I told him.

"OK. You demand me. I don't demand you."

See that. That's a lesson to live by that Trevor tried to teach me this morning. I can use that lesson to help navigate some of these tricky pitfalls.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Yesterday, I took the kids to the park. On my bike with the trailer attached. The trip from the house to the trail was a little sketchy, and I had to push the bike, trailer and children up the hill at least 4 times, but HEY, I took my kids to the park on my bike in the trailer (4 miles round trip). Yay me. Did I mention the trailer with kids probably weighs 120 pounds and that my thighs only burned for 1 day? OK, I have now.

So, the kids were playing in the sandbox in which there were 2 little girls who refused to share their toys with another little girl who asked politely to play. Not only did they refuse to share, they moved to another portion of the sandbox. Not my cup of tea, but to each his own. I was sad for the little girl whose feelings were so hurt that she cried. There was also a really big and handsome and friendly 2 year old boy who my old children refused to play with. Not my cup of tea either, but aside from telling my kids that it would be really nice to play with that handsome young fella, there wasn't a lot I could really do. His grandma was glad he was trying to make friends, and so was I, even if my own kids weren't interested.

Did I mention it was a windy day? It was a windy day.

I don't care if my kids throw sand and it gets in their own eyes. Eventually, that ought to learn 'em, right? But I don't really like for them to throw sand into the eyes of other children.

That's just a side note, though.

There was another little girl who was happily building a sand castle and dodging flying sand. After the two little girls made the other girl cry, the little sand builder's mom said, "Ah, talk about sandbox politics." I laughed.

But, she really hadn't seen nothing yet.

After the two leaver-outers left out the girl and made her cry and had been playing controversy-free for about 6 minutes, Devin walked over and stomped on their sand structure, knocking off the top third of whatever it was they were building.

I wish he was standing up for the little sad girl who just wanted her own bucket and a couple of new friends. But, he wasn't doing that at all. He was just being mean. And, I was rightfully appalled at his atrocious behavior.

I think I mumbled something about how that wasn't nice. But, it wasn't very heartfelt because I had already decided these girls were a little mean themselves. And, they proved they were the queens of the sandbox when one of them came over and kicked sand in Devin's face.

True. It served him right for his earlier transgression, and I didn't even so much as make a mean face at the mean girl. I just capitulated on his behalf and removed my children from the sandbox and tried to put the whole sandbox experience behind me.